Love Songs

Marvin Gaye was a superb duets singer, supporting his vocal partners and drawing them out like a graceful horn player, and he did delightful duets all throughout his career with the likes of Mary Wells, Kim Weston, and Diana Ross, but his most striking duets were with Tammi Terrell. Terrell instinctively understood that the best way to sing WITH Marvin Gaye was to sing AT him, and she more than held her own in the elegant call and response that resulted between the two. The pair's versions of "Ain't No Mountain High Enough," "Your Precious Love," "Ain't Nothing Like the Real Thing," and "You're All I Need to Get By"-- all songs from the inspired songwriting team of Nickolas Ashford & Valerie Simpson -- are classic recordings that never fall from grace. But this story has a very sad ending that adds even more emotional poignancy to these recordings. Terrell collapsed in Gaye's arms in the middle of a concert the pair was giving in 1967. Diagnosed with a brain tumor, she died from it three years later in 1970 when she was only 24 years old. The recordings she did with Gaye are her legacy, and the dozen of them included in this collection are the most central of those. The Ashford & Simpson gems are here, along with the wonderful "If I Could Build My World Around You" and several others, which makes this set a concise look at the enduring magic these two incredible singers created together. ~ Steve Leggett